Deck 1: An Overview of Managerial Finance

Question 1

A hostile takeover involves an attempt by one group of shareholders to solicit votes from other shareholders in order to put a new management team into place and is usually motivated by low share price.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The disadvantages associated with a proprietorship are similar to those under a partnership.One exception to this is due to the formal nature of the partnership agreement and the commitment of the partners' personal assets.As a result, partnerships do not have difficulty raising large amounts of capital.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

No firm can take cost-increasing, socially responsible actions in a competitive marketplace and expect to continue to compete, even if those cost-increasing actions yield significant benefits to the firm.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Two key limitations of the proprietorship form of business involve potential difficulty in raising needed capital and the presence of unlimited personal liability for business debts.

Question 5

A financial manager's task is to make decisions concerning the acquisition and use of funds for the greatest benefit of the firm.

Question 6

In general, the role of the financial manager is to plan for the acquisition and use of funds so as to maximise the value of the firm.

Question 7

In a competitive marketplace "good ethics" is a wonderful idea but an impractical standard.There are simply too few benefits to be gained from maintaining high business ethics.

Question 8

The financial manager must execute his or her duties independent of the other activities of the firm in order to properly maximise the value of the firm.

Question 9

In a competitive marketplace, if managers deviate too far from making decisions that are consistent with shareholder wealth maximisation, they risk being disciplined by the market.Part of this discipline involves the threat of being taken over by groups who are more aligned with shareholder interests.

Question 10

The term multinational company is used to describe a firm that operates in two or more countries.

Question 11

Normal profits are those that result in rates of return that are just sufficient to attract new capital in financial markets.

Question 12

The finance function is relatively independent of most other corporate functions.Marketing decisions, for example, might affect the firm's need for funds but are not affected by conditions in financial markets or other financing issues.

Question 13

Exchange rate risk is the risk that the cash flows from a foreign project will be worth less than those same cash flows denominated in the parent company's home currency.

Question 14

Cultural differences in do not impact the multinational companies as they expand into different geographic regions.

Question 15

The riskiness inherent in a firm's earnings per share (EPS) depends on both the types of projects the firm takes on and the manner in which the projects are financed.

Question 16

If a firm's managers want to maximise share price it is in their best interests to operate efficient, low-cost plants, develop new and safe products that consumers want, and maintain good relationships with customers, suppliers, creditors, and the communities in which they operate.

Question 17

Nations do not have the sovereignty to expropriate the assets of a firm without compensation.

Question 18

One way to state the decision framework most useful for carrying out the firm's objective is that the financial managers should seek that combination of assets, liabilities, and capital which will generate the largest expected projected income over the relevant time horizon.

Question 19

Incentive compensation plans are used to attract and retain top managerial talent as well as to align the interests of management with shareholders.

Question 20

The proper goal of the financial manager should be to maximise the firm's expected profit, because this will add the most wealth to each of the individual shareholders (owners) of the firm.

Question 21

Industrial groups are organisations comprised of companies in different industries with common ownership interests, which include firms necessary to sell and manufacture products.

Question 22

The primary goal of a publicly-owned firm interested in serving its shareholders should be to

A) Minimise the debt used by a firm.
B) Maximise expected EPS.
C) Minimise the chances of losses.
D) Maximise the stock price per share.
E) Maximise expected net income.

Question 23

Which of the following is a reason why companies move into international operations?

A) To take advantage of lower production costs in regions of inexpensive labour.
B) To develop new markets for their finished products.
C) To better serve their primary customers.
D) Because important raw materials are located abroad.
E) All of the above.

Question 24

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) The corporate bylaws are the set of rules drawn up by the state to enable managers to run the firm in accordance with state laws.
B) Procedures for electing corporate directors are contained in bylaws while the declaration of the activities that the firm will pursue and the number of directors are included in the corporate charter.
C) Procedures which govern changes in the bylaws of the company are contained in the corporate charter.
D) Although most companies design a charter, only the bylaws are legally required to be filed with the secretary of state in order for a company to be in official existence.

Question 25

Everything else equal, including firm size, rand sales, type of product sold, and so forth, the primary difference between the proprietorship and partnership business forms is that

A) a partnership has more owners than a proprietorship.
B) the combined personal liability associated with a partnership is significantly less than the combined personal liability associated with a proprietorship.
C) a partnership generally is easier to form than a proprietorship.
D) the annual growth rate of a proprietorship is limited by law, whereas the growth rate of a partnership is always potentially unlimited.
E) there are many more businesses that are formed as partnerships than proprietorships.

Question 26

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) The optimal dividend policy is the one that satisfies the shareholders because they supply the firm's capital.
B) The use of debt financing has no effect on earnings per share (EPS) or share price.
C) The riskiness of projected EPS depends upon how the firm is financed.
D) Share price is dependent on the projected EPS and the use of debt but not on the timing of the earnings stream.
E) Dividend policy is one aspect of the firm's financial policy that is determined directly by the shareholders.

Question 27

Which of the following mechanisms is not used by shareholders to get managers to act in shareholder's best interests?

A) Threat of firing
B) Managerial compensation.
C) Golden parachute.
D) Threat of takeover.
E) Answers b and c above.

Question 28

The primary goal of a financial manager should be to __________.

A) minimise operating costs
B) minimise interest payments
C) minimise tax payments
D) maximise operating income each year
E) maximise the value of the firm's shares

Question 29

The corporate charter is a document filed with the secretary of the state in which the firm is incorporated that provides information about the company, including its name, address, directors, and amount of capital shares.

Question 30

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) A major disadvantage of a regular partnership or a company as a form of business is the fact that they do not offer their owners limited liability, whereas proprietorships do.
B) An advantage of the company form for many businesses is the fact the corporate tax rate always exceeds the personal tax rate, which is the rate at which proprietorships and partnerships are taxed.
C) There are more partnerships and sole proprietorships than companies in S.A., but companies produce more goods and services than do other forms of business.
D) Because companies enjoy the benefits of limited liability, easy transferability of ownership interest, unlimited life, and favourable tax status relative to the situation for partnerships and proprietorships, most large businesses choose to incorporate.
E) Because lawyers have the incorporation process so automated (e.g., word processors for drawing up the necessary papers), it is less expensive to form a company than to form a proprietorship or partnership.

Question 31

Which of the following actions is consistent with social responsibility but is necessarily inconsistent with shareholder wealth maximisation?

A) Investing in a smokestack "scrubber" to reduce the firm's air pollution as mandated by law.
B) Voluntarily installing expensive machinery to treat effluent discharge which currently is being dumped into a river where it is ruining the drinking water of the community where the plant is located.
C) Investing in a smokestack filter to reduce sulphur-dioxide emissions in order to reduce the current tax being levied on the firm by the state for its pollution.
D) Making a large corporate donation to the local community in order to fund a recreation complex that will be used by the community and the firm's employees.
E) Each of the above actions is consistent with social responsibility and none are necessarily inconsistent with shareholder wealth maximisation.

Question 32

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) A hostile takeover is a primary method of transferring ownership interest in a company.
B) The company is a legal entity created by the state and is a direct extension of the legal status of its owners and managers, that is, the owners and managers are the company.
C) Unlimited liability and limited life are two key advantages of the corporate form over other forms of business organisation.
D) In part due to limited liability and ease of ownership transfer, companies have less trouble raising money in financial markets than other organisational forms.
E) Although shareholders of the company are insulated by limited legal liability, the legal status of the company does not protect the firm's managers in the same way.

Question 33

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) In a partnership, liability for other partners' misdeeds includes but is limited to the amount a particular partner has invested in the business.
B) Partnerships must be formed according to specific rules which include the filing of a formal written agreement with state authorities where the partnership does business.
C) A fast growth company would be more likely to set up a partnership for its business organisation than would a slow-growth company.
D) Partnerships have difficulty attracting capital in part because of the other disadvantages of the partnership form of business, including impermanence of the organisation.
E) A major disadvantage of a partnership as a form of business organisation is the high cost and practical difficulty of its formation.

Question 34

Managers of firms using accounting manipulations to inflate current earnings are likely to generate long-term benefits to the shareholders of the firm.

Question 35

Having the manager's compensation tied to the company's performance increases the agency problem that companies face.

Question 36

Which of the following should be the primary goal pursued by the financial manager of a firm?

A) Maximise net income (profits).
B) Maximise the firm's net worth, or book value.
C) Maximise dividends paid to common shareholders.
D) Minimise variable operating expenses.
E) Maximise the market value of the firm's stock.

Question 37

Which of the following statements about the company form of business organisation is incorrect?

A) The company is the easiest form of business organisation to establish.
B) In South Africa, companies generate a significantly greater percentage of total annual sales than either partnerships or proprietorships.
C) Companies generally are larger than either partnerships or proprietorships.
D) One of the most important features of the company form of business organisation is that shareholders have limited liability.
E) None of the above.

Question 38

A proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned by one individual and the owner benefits from the limited liability for business which limits his losses to what he has invested in the company.

Question 39

Which of the following is an example of an area of business where use of "questionable" ethics is considered a necessity?

A) Attracting and sustaining new customers.
B) Hiring and keeping skilled employees.
C) Keeping up with competition.
D) Dealing with firms who use "questionable" ethics.
E) None of the above.

Question 40

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) Given the multi-owner nature of most large companies, agency costs associated with perquisite consumption are not really a problem.
B) Managers may operate in the shareholders' best interests, but they may also operate in their own personal best interests.As long as managers stay within the law, there simply are not any effective controls that shareholders can implement to control managerial decision making.
C) Shareholder agency costs include the opportunity costs associated with constraining managerial freedom but do not include managerial salaries.
D) An agency relationship exists when one or more persons hire another person to perform some service but withhold decision-making authority from that person.
E) All of the above statements are false.

Question 41

Which of the following statements is correct?

A) Other things held constant, it is generally safer to invest money in a proprietorship than in a company.
B) There really is no difference between a general partnership and a company, because both have multiple owners and both offer limited liability to the owners.
C) If you are planning to start a business, which you will run as the sole employee, and if you expect the business to earn R1,000,000 per year before taxes, you always can minimise the total taxes you pay by setting up the business as a company.
D) According to the text, "agency problems" tend to increase when managers own larger relative amounts of the company's shares.
E) Maximising the income statement item "net income" might not be the best goal for a company if the managers are interested in maximising the economic welfare of the firm's shareholders (that is, the firm's share price).

Question 42

Which of the following statements concerning "agency problems" is most correct?

A) Regardless of economic conditions, if a firm's share price falls during the year, this indicates that the firm's managers must not be acting in the best interests of the shareholders.
B) One method of controlling agency problems is to engage in the taking of "poison pills."
C) One of the best means to control agency problems is to require the managers and other important decision makers of the firm to also be owners of the firm.
D) Agency problems probably would not exist if the important decisions of a firm were made by persons who have no vested interests, such as ownership, in the firm.
E) None of the above is a correct statement.

Question 43

In South Africa, the most common form of business is a __________, and the form of business that generates most of the sales and profits is a __________.

A) company; company
B) company; proprietorship
C) proprietorship; partnership
D) proprietorship; company
E) company; partnership

Question 44

Which of the following statements is incorrect?

A) Large European firms generally have many more individual owners than large U.S.firms.
B) One reason domestic firms "go global" is to sell products in new markets.
C) Often firms can avoid regulatory hurdles that apply to foreign manufacturers by establishing operations in the country where the hurdles apply.
D) A difficulty associated with doing business in international markets is that not all countries have the same currency.
E) Cultural differences among countries make it difficult for a multinational firm to use the same marketing strategy-that is, packaging, advertising, and so forth-in every country in which it operates.

Question 45

All else equal, in which of the following forms of business would the possibility of an agency problem be the greatest?

A) An S.A.company that is publicly traded.
B) A proprietorship.
C) A partnership in which all the partners share management and decision-making responsibilities equally.
D) A foreign company with concentrated ownership-that is, relatively few owners.

Question 46

Management may expropriate wealth from bondholders to shareholders through which of the following actions:

A) take on new ventures with much greater risk than was anticipated by creditors.
B) take on more debt to increase the returns to shareholders.
C) issue more shares than was anticipated by creditors.
D) answers a and b are correct.
E) answers b and c are correct.

Question 47

Paying Payroll Service (PPS) recently declared bankruptcy.The price of PPS's shares has dropped from approximately R10 per share one year ago to R1 today.You can imagine that shareholders are not happy that the value of their shares has dropped so significantly.At the same time the financial position of the firm was deteriorating, PPS executives increased their salaries and perquisites substantially.Nothing they did violated any laws or was considered an unethical act.We would most likely describe this situation as __________.

A) an agency problem.
B) an accounting glitch.
C) an appropriate use of the tax laws.
D) an appropriate action, because executive compensation should always be increased substantially each year.
E) acceptable, because it is obvious that the executives were trying to maximise the value of the firm, which is what the shareholders want them to do.

Question 48

Which of the following statements concerning a firm's quest to maximise wealth is correct?

A) In extremely competitive industries, we would expect firms would voluntarily engage in many socially beneficial projects to try to maximise their shares' values.
B) Actions that maximise a firm's share price are inconsistent with maximising social welfare.
C) The concepts of social responsibility and ethical responsibility on the part of companies are completely different and neither is relevant in maximising share price.
D) In a competitive market, if a group of firms does not spend resources making social welfare improvements, but another group does, in general, this will not affect the second group's ability to attract funds.
E) If government did not mandate socially responsible corporate actions, such as those relating to product safety and fair hiring practices, most firms in competitive markets probably would not pursue such policies voluntarily.

Question 49

All of the following are external factors that influence the share prices of the firm except

A) legal constraints
B) capital structure
C) tax laws
D) general level of economic activity
E) conditions in the stock market

Question 50

Compared to companies, what is the primary disadvantage of partnerships as forms of business organisations?

A) The tax rates applied to partnership are higher than the tax rates applied to companies.
B) Any dividends paid to the owners of a partnership business are taxed twice-once at the partnership level and once at the personal, or individual level.
C) Partnerships generally are much easier to form (start up) than companies.
D) Partnerships have unlimited lives whereas companies do not.
E) The owners of a partnership-that is, the partners-have unlimited liability when it comes to business obligations whereas the owners of a company have limited liability.